NGOs and the Advancement of Economic and Social Rights: Philosophical and Practical Controversies

This article explores controversies surrounding economic and social rights in the context of recent moves by non-governmental organizations, notably Amnesty International, to strengthen their commitment to these ‘second-generation’ rights. Although this move is long overdue, particularly in an era of increasing economic polarization due to globalization, the article argues that these efforts will fail if we simply attempt to ‘add’ economic and social rights to the existing liberal human rights discourse. This article focuses on the contribution that feminist ethics has made to the reconceptualization of rights in theory and practice. Specifically, it argues that, in order to make sense of both the moral imperative of so-called ‘welfare’ rights, and the political work required to realize them, we must rethink rights in terms of relationships and the patterns of responsibility that emerge out of them.